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RANGELEY, Maine — Democratic Rep. Jared Golden has been on the fringes of his party. Now, he's on the cusp of becoming a power broker.
Deep inside Maine's northern logging country, during a soaked ATV ride to Quill Hill, a lookout about 3,000 feet above sea level, Golden discussed his political future this summer.
The combat veteran is running for a fourth term in Maine’s largely rural, sprawling and deeply purple 2nd District as an outsider unbeholden to his party. He faces Republican Austin Theriault, a former NASCAR driver turned state legislator in one of the country’s most expensive battleground races.
A victorious Golden could see his power swell. That’s because he's helping lead an independent-minded group of young lawmakers willing to use their leverage and buck leadership in order to get what they want. They are rebuilding the Blue Dog Coalition, a once-venerable centrist bloc that has more recently been viewed as an outdated relic.
If Democrats win a small majority in November led by Blue Dog candidates, it would give Golden and his group power to dictate the outcome of legislation on top priorities from climate change to immigration.
"We’re building, we hope, a team of young Blue Dogs who actually want to legislate and use leverage to get things done the way they should be done for their districts," Golden said in an interview here at Oquossoc Grocery, a small market the northern stretch of his district.
"One way you have to do that is a willingness, if the margins are tight, to say ‘no’ to your own leadership, and be, like, look, here’s the list of things that really matter to our constituents," he said.
This is a working class region where logging trucks rumble by and paper mills still churn — and Golden looks like he fits in. He arrived in his Chevy pickup wearing a raincoat, khaki utility pants and boots.
Nobody in a crowded store seemed to notice the third-term representative buying breakfast, and he spoke so softly that he was barely audible over a jackhammer across the street.
But he described an ambitious plan to refashion the Blue Dogs into a populist group of Democrats with real power to be a bulwark against the party’s left — which has been its power center for the past decade.
“We basically reject party loyalty, the idea that there should be some kind of national party with a series of cascading litmus tests and everyone’s gotta follow suit,” Golden said. "I view us as much more populist … it’s about establishing leverage and exerting force and power, political power, for very specific means."
Nobody currently in Congress has used their leverage as a centrist, swing vote better than Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat-turned-independent from West Virginia.
Manchin tormented his party’s leadership and left flank for two years when Democrats held Congress and the White House, holding back his vote for months on end to extract concessions from his party’s leadership on what became the Inflation Reduction Act.
Now, with Manchin retiring, he’s backing Golden. “The best of the best,” Manchin said of the Mainer. “What we’re trying to do — and I’m trying to help him any way I can, I'm with him 1000 percent — is try and create support for the middle.”
For Manchin, that means supporting independent-minded candidates from primary challengers who could unseat them.
"A person that comes here and wants to be independent ... vote your conscience and vote what’s best for the country first, don’t follow the party lines,” Manchin said. “We’re going to make sure they have support."
While Golden may not have the sway of a single senator from his post in the House, he may not need too many more Blue Dogs to become a significant force.
“As congressional majorities have gotten so much narrower, it’s not obvious that you need so many members, as long as you’ve got just enough,” said Ruth Bloch Rubin, a political science professor at the University of Chicago who studies how intraparty divisions impact lawmaking.
“Golden’s working from a point of advantage, because whatever congressional majority if Democrats are to retake the House, it’s going to be a narrow one,” she said. “To have someone like Golden who recognizes the importance of organization and institution building, that’s where the action is and that’s where moderates are going to find success.”
If the margins work out in Golden’s favor, it sets him on a collision course with the party’s most powerful figures. That includes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has already discussed taking another stab at broad climate legislation.
“I don’t want to talk about a climate bill, I’m not doing any more of that,” Golden said of one of the Democrats' top priorities for next year.
That doesn’t mean Golden views himself as a bad Democrat. He believes his brand of politics dubbed “progressive conservatism” could be a way to rescue the party in rural, blue-collar districts where Republicans have trounced Democrats in recent years.
“I’m still the most popular Democrat that has been on the ballot in Maine’s Second District since before I started running for office,” Golden said, citing internal polling numbers that show him maintaining 90 percent support among Democrats. “So who’s out of whack with Democrats in rural America?”
Golden sees Vice President Kamala Harris — the Democratic presidential nominee — following his model by swinging left on economics and right on other issues such as the border, crime and the environment.
“If you wanna win, then fine, follow me,” Golden said. “I’ll be a bit of your thought leader on how to really represent working class and rural communities where if we were doing as well as we used to, we’d be quite dominant nationally."
The Blue Dog Coalition was pivotal during the Obama administration in shaping issues such as the health care debate. Their numbers have since dwindled. They had 54 members in 2009. They are now down to 10.
Golden chairs the group alongside Reps. Marie Glusenkamp-Perez of Washington and Mary Peltola of Alaska. Their races are all considered toss-ups.
A recent poll from the Portland, Maine-based Pan Atlantic Research had Theriault ahead of Golden 47-44, but within the margin of error. The Democrat is ahead in the money game.
“Hopefully, I’ll have a team of Blue Dogs around me [next year], and part of it will just be to try and use our collective leverage to make sure that what gets done meets our priorities," Golden said.
Challenging Dems on energy
Golden and his Blue Dogs have plenty of priorities, and many of them are parochial and unsexy.
He consistently battles the Biden administration over regulations on lobster fishermen. Peltola joins Republicans to slam the Biden administration’s land protections in Alaska. And Glusenkamp-Perez, an auto mechanic by trade, has bucked the Biden administration on electric vehicles, warning they won’t work in rural communities and fights for farmers to be able to repair their own tractors.
Some of Golden's strongest resistance to President Joe Biden and Democratic colleagues has to do with energy and the environment. Golden has an 82 percent lifetime score and a 53 percent 2023 score from the League of Conservation Voters, which generally aligns with Democrats.
He was one of only four Democrats to support H.R. 1, a House Republican package to ease environmental reviews and promote energy projects, with a heavy emphasis on fossil fuels.
"You want to talk about doing an energy bill, let’s do an energy bill," he said about what Democrats should focus on next year if they win the elections.
Golden voted for the IRA, but only after months of objecting to its precursor, the "Build Back Better Act," which he said was a “poorly-targeted and fiscally irresponsible agenda put forward by the Biden administration.”
"I voted for a bill that was drafted by Joe Manchin," Golden said. And, like Manchin, he objects to how the administration is implementing it to promote electric vehicles and other green energy.
“Their approach to it in the White House has been to get the lawyers out and figure out how they can use waiver authority and all kinds of other shit."
“They’re not committed to an energy focus that’s about American energy strength, about making an effort to bring new energy sources and technology to America rather than buying from China or from even our allies in Europe,” Golden said. “That’s what I’m for, whether it’s oil and gas, or nuclear, or wind or solar, all the above, all great as long as it’s all made in America.”
Golden says the people he represents care more about affordable energy than the climate crisis. And for Golden’s brand of politics, pragmatic solutions to local issues always come before the interests of the national party.
“I think that stems from a very constituency-oriented mindset,” Ryan LaRochelle, a political science professor at the University of Maine. “Lots of Mainers are, like, ‘yeah, climate change is important,’ but it’s probably not the most pressing issue for a lot of them.”
The median household income in Golden's district is around $62,000 — below the U.S. average — and around 7 percent of residents are without health insurance, according to census data. The area is mostly white, and 13 percent live below the poverty line.
While riding on his ATV at full speed so water would splash through the dashboard, Golden was far more eager to talk about securing funding for off-road wheelchairs so disabled children can hunt than the existential threat of climate change.
When he does align with his party, it also aligns with his district. Golden supports higher taxes on the rich, higher wages for workers, more affordable access to health care and lower prescription drug costs.
He knocked Republicans for wanting to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act — not because of the law's climate spending and green energy incentives, but because of it allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices and capped insulin at $35 a month.
“With Golden, part of his appeal comes from this sort of pragmatism, that I think is very rooted in rural areas, like ‘who cares about what party you’re from let’s just get shit done’ sort of thing,” LaRochelle said.
Golden’s relationship with former Maine state Sen. Tom Saviello, who came along on the ATV ride, is an example. The Republican met Golden in the State House while Golden was a representative.
Saviello was a supporter of then-Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine). But in 2018, frustrated with Poliquin’s support of Trump-era tax cuts for the wealthy and repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Saviello bucked his party to back Golden in his successful bid to oust Poliquin.
“Where do you have a congressman that shows up at Farmington, Maine, at your local bar? ... That’s who Jared is, he’s part of the fabric and he’s independent in how he thinks," Saviello said in a phone interview.
Golden left the University of Maine at Farmington in 2002 to join the Marine Corps and finished his degree at Bates College when he returned from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Later, he worked on Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ staff before running for the state Legislature as a Democrat. He won and eventually rose to the position of assistant House majority leader.
“He hasn’t forgotten the poverty we have up here,” Saviello said of Golden. “The Democrats have forgotten that. ‘Oh we’re gonna have electric cars.’ How much does an electric car cost?”
Race to the finish
Even though Golden could wreak havoc with Democratic policy plans next year, the party is focused on making sure he wins. Golden's seat could catapult them back into the majority.
National Republicans, for their part, are going all-out to elect Theriault and oust Golden, a prize they have sought for years.
"I'm going to go to work on day one and look at reforming our energy policy so that we can bring more American energy online in our country," Theriault said during a debate.
Golden shot back: "Since we passed [the IRA], we have drilled more oil and gas in this country than ever before in the history of the United States. That's the result of that law he's talking about."
In August, House Speaker Mike Johnson paid a visit to Auburn, Maine, to stump for Theriault, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. “Make America Great Again” hats dotted the crowd in a strip mall GOP office.
Theriault introduced himself as a Mainer from Aroostook County, a vast stretch that borders both New Brunswick and Quebec. He served one term in the Maine Legislature.
"I’m not just a race-car driver," Theriault said. “I’m very, very proud to have come from a logging family from one of the most rural parts of the state of Maine. My grandfather was a logger, his father was a farmer and my dad is a trucker."
Theriault harped on Golden as a “flip-flopper,” who has “voted against border security at every turn,” while also arguing that Golden and Democratic leadership bear the blame for inflation.
“We have an influx of these illegals coming across our country. They're stressing our social safety net. We got veterans that are homeless on the street,” Theriault said. “What about the Americans that paid their taxes, who served our country? We need to be putting them first.”
Johnson took the stage to cheers of “USA, USA." "This election and this race with Austin is one of the most important America, and it will decide the fate of our freedom. I am not overstating this," Johnson said.
Golden brushed off the GOP's rhetoric.
“They’ve been pounding on me, tens of millions of dollars, and yet my favorables are still significantly higher than my unfavorables. Not to say that I can’t lose, I certainly could, but not because of Mike Johnson or anything he does," Golden said.
“If [House Democratic Leader] Hakeem Jeffries came up here, a whole bunch of Democrats would pack the room. But you know, who wouldn't be in the room, the types of voters that are going to determine the outcome: swing voters.”
And Golden’s supporters say those Maine swing voters like a maverick independent. After all, the state elected William Cohen — one of the first Republicans who backed impeaching President Richard Nixon. Cohen later became Defense secretary for President Bill Clinton.
"I think Jared’s got the potential to be in the same category where those people communicated and they voted with what their constituents wanted, not what the party wanted," Saviello said. "He knows he’s elected by people that want that kind of person down there."
At the end of the ATV ride, Golden returned to his truck, removed his bag from the ATV and opened it.
“It’s soaked,” he said, as he pulled a holstered pistol out of his bag and placed it in the truck. “Gonna have to clean it.”
